


open my eyes (in the right way)

by flashlighted



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: 5+1 Things, Canon Compliant, Everyone is tired all the time, Fluff and Angst, Gender-Neutral Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Homesick Lance (Voltron), Keith is smooth af imo, M/M, Mostly fluff though, Non-Graphic Violence, Sleep, like... so much sleeping it is basically all sleeping, mostly just Lance being salty about the violence; it's not detailed
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-28
Updated: 2017-06-28
Packaged: 2018-11-12 15:25:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,578
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11164704
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/flashlighted/pseuds/flashlighted
Summary: Sleepy Boys Club.Or, five times Keith and Lance fall asleep together accidentally, and the one time they wake up.





	open my eyes (in the right way)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [bi_spying](https://archiveofourown.org/users/bi_spying/gifts).



> The first 3 are weeks apart from each other, timeline wise, and the last 3 take place in about a week? Not really useful information but there ya go.
> 
> Also sorry if there's any formatting issues I had to reformat it a million times bc ao3 haTES me

At the best of times, Keith was not a heavy-sleeper, and at the worst of times Keith wasn’t a sleeper at all. Especially at night, it could be difficult for him to get his beauty rest. And so, it wasn’t unusual for him to fall asleep in a weird spot for about five minutes, then wake up and go about his day until the next five minute powernap. It was common enough that no one was surprised anymore when they came across Keith slumped over on a couch, or leaned against a pillar, or sitting in the elevator. After a few weeks, no one questioned it, or even thought it was odd anymore.

Not to say that it wasn’t inconvenient when he couldn’t be found, though it was fairly easy to wake him up when he was eventually located. Most times he would wake up and wander back on his own. Very rarely, he would sleep for a lengthier period of time, sometimes for thirty minutes, sometimes for four hours.

It was the longer stretches of time that Lance _lived for_.

Keith might have been a light sleeper, but Lance did not grow up with four siblings for nothing. He was a master of sneaking around sleeping people. And he was just as good at pranking them.

It was always playful and never malicious. Mostly just things like building walls out of boxes around Keith, or piling loads of blankets on top of him. Once Lance had covered him entirely in the Altean equivalent of post-it notes. He got a kick out of the initial look of confusion when Keith first woke up, just before he realized that Lance was up to his tricks again. It was priceless. Right up until the moment Keith figured out what was going on, started cursing and chasing Lance around the castle while promising murder, it was pure joy. Lance would never admit it, to himself or especially to anyone else, but even then he was still having fun.

This prank, however, was going to be Lance’s magnum opus, his masterpiece, his life’s work. The only problem was Keith wouldn't _quiznaking_ sleep.

Or at least he wouldn't stay asleep when Lance happened across him. It was throwing a real wrench in his plan. He needed Keith to be snuggled deep into the arms of REM sleep to pull it off, but MulletHead McGee only ever seemed to be dozing. Every time Lance had come close to enacting his plot, Keith had blinked those purple eyes of his open and ruined the entire operation. Lance had gotten desperate enough that he was almost considering asking Hunk to put something sleep inducing in the food when he finally saw an opening.

He’d been heading to the training room when the opportunity arose, and _sure_ he needed to be training and _sure_ Shiro would be beyond pissed when he found out, but Lance had been waiting weeks. _Weeks _. He just couldn't pass up what fate had so kindly delivered into his hands. Lance liked to think of himself as a patient person, but even he had limits, and he had reached his. It was now or never.__

____

Over the long, torturous weeks of waiting, Lance’s enthusiasm over the quality of the prank had dwindled. Maybe it wasn't _really_ his best work, but goddammit he’d waited this long and he wasn't about to just give up now. And he knew it was going to drive Keith crazy, which was really the end goal anyway. 

He crept down the hall until he was in front of Keith, and jumped, landing solidly so his feet made a loud noise against the floor. There was no response from Keith other than a slight eyebrow twitch, and Lance felt his face split into a wide grin. 

He got to work quickly, untying the laces of Keith's boots, fingers tripping over the double knots because _of course_ Keith tied his shoes that way. After several long moments, sweating nervously out of fear that Keith would wake up and catch him, the laces were undone. Lance carefully loosened them and, so slowly that it felt like he was hardly even moving, he slid them off of Keith’s feet. He meticulously removed the laces, tying them into two large bows and creating a makeshift headband which he slipped onto Keith's head. It looked absolutely ridiculous, and Lance grinned again at it as he stood up and grabbed the boots as he did. 

After a quick glance at Keith, who was still deeply asleep, Lance left for the training room to make good on his promise to Shiro. It was the quickest training session he'd ever done, fueled by his anticipation and his burning need to be able to see Keith's face when he realized his shoes were gone. He shot his way through the sequence twice, upping the difficulty before calling it quits. He was sweaty and satisfied with his effort, and knew he could totally justify it to Shiro if asked. 

He sneaked back into the hall, where Keith was still leaned against the wall. His head was pillowed on his shoulder, the shoelace headband resting low across his forehead. Lance snickered and wished he had a camera. It was really too easy to prank Keith.

After a moment of laughing at his handiwork, Lance leaned back against the wall and slid his way down the wall till he was seated. He was directly across from Keith with the best seat in the house waiting for the upcoming show. 

And waiting. 

And waiting. 

Lance blew out a sigh. He'd forgotten exactly how long Keith could sleep for, _holy quiznak_. He was tempted to wake Keith up himself, but it would ruin the magic of the moment. It wouldn't do to have all his hard work go down the drain, and he sighed again. Tipping his head back to lean against the wall, Lance shifted to a more comfortable position and closed his eyes to wait out the rest of Keith's nap. A nap which was quickly crossing into coma territory. 

Lance could feel himself growing sleepy, the exertion of his training session catching up to him, combined with his sleep deprivation from the past missions. He didn't really trust himself to wake up in time to enjoy the effects of his prank, but it was his best bet. Besides, there was no way he was going to spend the next god-only-knew how long waiting for Keith to wake up. Even if he looked stupidly cute for some reason, Lance didn’t really want to commit more time to just sitting there. He relaxed and let himself fall into a nap, Keith's boots sitting forgotten beside him. 

2.  
Being a space defender was not all it was cracked up to be, Keith was learning. It sounded pretty awesome on paper; exhilarating fights against enemy aliens in super advanced lion-fighters, saving the day and the universe. In reality though, it was tiring and stressful.

Take their last mission for example; freeing a Galra work camp that had been in the act of turning an entire planet into a lean, mean, quintessence harvesting machine. All in all it had been pretty standard Voltron stuff; break in, free the prisoners, destroy the camp. But these types of missions were the worst for Keith; they left him feeling terrible and angry. Seeing the disregard that the Galra had for other lifeforms turned his stomach and made him irritable for days after. Even if it was something that all of the team knew, seeing it first-hand over and over took its toll on them all.

Not to say that being a space defender, a _legendary_ defender wasn’t cool. Flying advanced alien technology around space and destroying evil was just really damn great sometimes. The high from a mission done right was like nothing else, even as exhausting and draining, both physically and mentally, the missions themselves could be. The job satisfaction was unreal, even if they were just a ragtag crew of teenagers doing their best. And Keith wasn’t going to even _try_ to deny that flying around in space was basically a dream come true.

He was sat in the bridge with the rest of the team, still wearing their flight suits as Allura and Coran debriefed them. They were all sweaty, leaning on each other or against walls as they listened intently to Allura list off a bunch of data and information. Keith was jammed in between the Blue and Yellow Paladins, with Lance on his left and Hunk on his right, nodding along with the rest of them as Allura continued speaking. He was half-tuned out, too tired to pay full attention as his head drooping down to his left side, bobbing as he struggled to keep himself awake.

After several instances of jerking his head back up, catching himself just before he tumbled into sleep, his head dipped down and clunked into Lance’s, who appeared to be having the same issue with staying awake. They glared at each other and turned back to look at Coran, who had taken over speaking, congratulating them on their hard work. Keith was still harbouring a grudge over Lance stealing his shoes, weeks before, and his scowl deepened just thinking about it. He stared at Coran, vowing to stay awake properly.

His renewed attention didn’t last for very long though; after a moment or two, both Keith and Lance again found themselves half-way to dozing. They were doing their best to pay attention; they really were. But after fifteen hours of constant attention to their surroundings and calculating the effects of just about every damn thing they were doing it was more than a little difficult. Keith’s head leaned over again, blinking his sleepy eyes furiously to stay awake, but it didn’t make a difference. He never had a chance. The moment his head touched down on Lance’s shoulder, he was out; eyes sliding closed. He was conscious for just long enough to feel Lance’s head touch down on top of his, the Blue Paladin finally giving in to his own exhaustion as well. 

3.  
Keith was a big, dumb idiot. Lance planned on telling him so the minute Keith got out of the healing pod, because he was _steamed_. Keith had used his dumb idiot body to block a knife, and the result had been pretty much what was expected. Lots of bleeding and cursing and worry. Not to mention the panicking. Sure, he’d been blocking a knife for _Lance_ , but that did _not_ change things. What was the point in having a sword if you couldn't even deflect one measly dagger with it? Lance was so mad he thought he was going to explode.

“Who does he think he is?” he muttered hotly, arms crossed as he paced back in forth in front of the pod which contained a very unconscious and very unhealthy looking Keith. He felt a twinge of concern every time he looked at him, but he was too busy being furious to process it.

“Probably the guy who saved your life?” Pidge suggested, an eyebrow quirked as they watched Lance pace, wondering how long it would take him to wear a path into the floor, “Just a guess.” 

The rest of Team Voltron had dispersed after Keith had been safely inside the healing pod, and it was just the two of them, plus a pod-encased Keith. Allura and Coran had left after checking on Keith’s vitals, and Hunk and Shiro had followed suit soon after, throwing worried glances over their shoulders that Lance had pointedly ignored.

Lance turned to look at Pidge and pulled a face to show what he thought about that. “Look, if Keith wants to be a meat-shield that's on him, okay?” Pidge rolled their eyes at that.

“This is just like him; going out of commission when it's more important than ever that we form Voltron. Can’t exactly do that when we’re short one Red Paladin,” Lance added with a scoff and a tone of pure annoyance. His pacing picked up speed.

“So that's why you're so torn up about this, huh,” Pidge said dryly, the second eyebrow rising to match the first. Lance tried not to scowl and failed spectacularly. 

“Don't you have an element to go discover or something?”

“Probably,” Pidge said with a hint of a smirk. “Let me know when he wakes up; I wanna make sure Keith knows you called him a meat-shield.” 

Lance narrowed his eyes and turned back around to face stupid Keith in his stupid healing pod with his stupid stab wound. The doors hissed open and back closed, and he blew out a breath before stopping to stand in front of the pod. Keith looked peaceful in his dream-state, his stupid terrible mullet falling softly around his face. It was a far cry from the last time he’d seen Keith asleep and drooling all over his shoulder. Lance scowled at the memory; he couldn’t let some ‘bonding moment’ get in the way of how much he wanted to fight Keith. Though if it could even count as a bonding moment, Lance wasn’t sure. There had been a hell of a lot of bickering when Hunk had woken them both up. But that wasn’t the point. The point was; how dare Keith let himself get seriously hurt like that?

Letting out another loud and deeply miffed sigh, Lance sat down and leaned back against the pod, skull tipped back against the cool metal. He was exhausted; and not just a regular post-mission level of exhaustion. He was completely drained, physically, mentally, and emotionally. There had been a terrible moment, stretched impossibly into what felt like decades or centuries by anxiety and dread, where Lance honest-to-god had thought Keith was going to bleed out and _die_. Lance had been panicking and sweating and trying to remember all the first-aid training he'd ever had, Allura and Shiro had been shouting, and Keith had just been staring at him with those _eyes_ and he'd been _so_ pale and _it had all been Lance’s fault_

Lance inhaled deeply to dispel the swirls of anxiety wrapping around his core and trying to squeeze the air out of him, and forced himself onto another train of thought. Like how how he was going to give the Red Paladin the lecture of the century about proper defensive techniques, the words all taken verbatim from Keith himself. That would show him. There was even a good chance he'd be able to squeeze in a line or two about proper bayard use. Lance could almost taste how sweet it would be to parrot back Keith's own words. Finally, a one up on Keith.

Lance took the thought back instantly; it wouldn’t be that great. It wouldn’t even be good. Keith had almost died, bit the bullet, kicked the bucket. Lance could feel the rage building back up again, and quickly took in a deep breath, trying exercises Shiro had taught him to calm himself. _Patience yields focus_ and all that.

He sighed and closed his aching eyes. Exhaustion had settled on Lance’s head like a heavy crown, and his eyelids felt like lead. He wanted to stay awake until Keith woke up; he _needed_ to stay awake until Keith woke up, to catch prime lecture time, but he could feel himself being pulled into the lull of sleep. Each time he blinked his eyes stayed closed longer and longer. Slowly, his chin tucked down onto his chest, his breathing evened out, and Lance drifted off into much needed sleep. And if he dreamed about beating some sense into a hardheaded, impulsive Red Paladin, well, who was to say?

4\. 

How, exactly, he'd managed to get himself in this situation, Keith had no idea. He'd been kinda-sorta-absolutely avoiding Lance since the whole ‘let me block a knife for you using my body’ incident, because Lance had been _so_ mad about it? Keith didn't understand why. He’d been protecting a teammate; a friend, and Lance was angry about it? It stung a little. 

Keith had expressed his confusion about it to Pidge but they’d only made a cryptic comment about ‘idiot boys who can't understand their own emotions’ and gone back to tinkering with some sort of alien tech. It hadn’t been very enlightening.

Which was why he was so perplexed about the situation he'd stumbled into. Keith had planned to spend a bit of time on the observation deck, huddled on a couch before heading to bed. To be perfectly honest, he was hoping he’d manage to fall asleep in the glow of stars and planets. He’d walked onto the deck excepting solitude and stars, but instead he'd come across Lance curled in on himself on a couch. 

And Lance was… crying?

Keith hesitated, half-ready to slip back out through the door and leave Lance to himself. The room was absolutely silent except the sounds of Lance’s snuffling, and Keith decided he couldn't leave him there like that. 

“Lance?” He called out softly, finally moving into the room. 

Lance’s head snapped up sharply. “What do you want, Keith?” Keith paused with his foot mid-air before finally speaking again, placing it down like he was testing the waters. 

“I just, uh...Are you okay?”

“Oh, just peachy,” Lance replied. Despite the fact his tone was irritated, Keith could hear how miserable he was. He wrinkled his brow in confusion but moved further into the room until he was close enough to Lance he could speak at a more conversational volume.

“What's wrong?” Keith pressed. Lance swiped at his eyes and turned his face away as Keith sat down at the other end of the couch, staying firmly out of Lance’s personal space.

“It's stupid,” he said angrily and then paused to sniffle, turning back to face Keith with an accusatory look, “it's stupid and you don't care anyways.”

“Why wouldn't I care, I'm your friend? I literally just asked you what was wrong?” Keith replied, both blunt and deeply confused. Lance rubbed at one red-rimmed eye with a fist and remained stubbornly silent.

“Tell me,” Keith prompted again, as softly as he could manage. Lance blew out a sigh and looked down at his hands fidgeting in his lap. <

“It's just so hard. Like, space is really awesome and all, and living on a spaceship should basically be a dream come true, but... but it's not home, you know?” Lance said earnestly, his lip wobbling and his eyes blinking furiously to hold back more tears. He sounded so lost that it made Keith's heart ache. But he nodded and tried to look like he understood, like he did _know_ when he didn't and he never would. Earth held nothing for him, and it never would. 

‘I just- I miss the smell of rain on hot pavement in the summer, and my mom playing music in the kitchen while she cooked, and-” Lance took in a ragged breath, his lip wobbling having transitioned into full on sobs. Keith had never seen Lance like this before, and he panicked for a moment before he moved instinctively. He leaned forward, and wrapped his arms around Lance a little awkwardly, pulling him into a hug. Lance stiffened for half a second before relaxing into the embrace and burying his face into the crook of Keith’s neck. Lance’s body shook with the force of his sobs as Keith traced circles and spirals on his back and murmured soothing things. 

“It's alright, it's going to be okay, Lance,” he whispered, his hand switching to card gently through Lance’s hair. “It’s okay.” Gradually, his breathing evened out, interrupted only by the occasional hiccup. Keith kept speaking softly, soothing words tumbling from his lips like water. His fingertips were light in Lance’s hair, barely a ghost of a touch. At some point Lance had wrapped his arms tightly around Keith’s waist, but Keith couldn't pinpoint when it had happened. 

Keith wasn’t sure how long they had sat like that for before Lance finally pulled away, wiping at his face with the heels of his hands. Without looking Keith could tell that the shoulder of his shirt was a mess, but he didn’t care. They looked at each other in silence for a long moment before he spoke.

“You’re okay?”

Lance nodded, and Keith smiled softly before moving to stand up.

“Hey, Keith?”

He froze, and Lance waited for him to plop back down and make eye contact before continuing. “I'm sorry I was such a jerk about the whole you saving my life thing.”

“Oh,” Keith said, and then added after a pause, “it's alright.”

“I- I think I was mad because you got yourself hurt, but I wasn't mad at you,” Lance flushed and rubbed at the back of his neck, “if that makes sense.”

“Not really,” Keith laughed, and after a moment Lance joined him. 

“Keith?”>

<“Yeah?”>

“Thanks.”

Keith smiled for a moment and said warmly, “No worries. What are teammates for?” Lance gave him a look he couldn't quite read. There was another moment of silence and Keith again made the motions to get off the couch. 

“It's kind of stupid but,” Lance said abruptly, flushing again, “would you stay with me for a bit? I don't wanna be alone. Normally I’d ask Hunk, but I don't know where he is.”

“Oh,” Keith hummed, and then nodded decisively “okay.”

“You don't have to do anything or even talk, just sit with me,” Lance said hurriedly, suddenly self conscious.

“I just said I would,” Keith raised an eyebrow and then curled himself back into the corner of the couch. Lance gave him a warm look before stretching his legs out across the length of the sofa and depositing his feet into Keith’s lap. >

And despite Lance’s claims that they don't have to talk, they do. They chatted about how they missed sunrises on earth, because despite the infinite number of stars in the universe it just wasn’t the same. They talked about Pidge, and Hunk, and they talked about everything and nothing. Fears and dreams. Lance talked about swimming at the beach and his huge family, and Keith waxed poetic about cacti. And… it was nice. Keith felt warm, and soft, and _comfortable_. Comfortable in a way he hadn’t in a long, long time.

He didn't think he'd spoken to Lance that much before, at all, ever. It's a bonding moment that he hoped they’d both remember. 

They talked softly for hours, time slipping away from them and sleep sneaking in. Waves of it broke over their heads until they were pulled into the current and swept into dreaming. 

5.

Lance was a simple man with simple needs, or so he liked to think. And one of those needs was his beauty sleep. Not that he needed to be more beautiful, or could even possibly _be_ more beautiful but! Sleep was not a necessity he was willing to do without. His skincare and his sleep; the two most important aspects of his self care routine.

Unfortunately, Lance was not getting any rest. He’d been woken up, though he couldn’t place why. He grumbled and rolled over, curling back into the warmth of his sheets when he heard muffled yelling. Immediately, he went on high alert, jumping up and grabbing his bayard from where it sat next to his bed. Lance stormed out of his room into the hall, clad in his pyjamas and slippers, only to find it completely empty. He paused, thrown off, and listened again. After a beat, he heard it again and followed it further down the hallway. He stepped as stealthily as he could manage, ears straining, to stop right in front of Keith’s door where all the noise seemed to be coming from.

“What the quiznak?” Lance muttered under his breath before entering the room. Naturally, it was dark, but it was obvious that nothing was out of place. No Galran intruders or hostile aliens. Just Keith, tucked up into bed, just like he should be. Lance let himself look fondly at the sleeping Keith for a moment, contemplating how gentle he looked asleep. He was turning around to check the rest of the deck when Keith let out a ragged noise that made Lance jump. 

Then he realized. The yelling hadn't been from a Galran spy; it had come from _Keith_. 

Lance crossed the room in two steps and sat down on the edge of the bed, setting his bayard down on the floor in practically the same movement. Tentatively he grabbed Keith’s thrashing shoulders and gently shook them. 

“Hey,” he murmured, voice reassuring and soft as years of training as a big brother finally kicked in, “hey Keith, it's okay, wake up, it's okay.” 

Keith's eyes jolted open in the same instant as his hands reached up and roughly grabbed Lance’s wrists. His expression was blank of recognition but full of fear and panic. Lance felt a pull at his heart but kept whispering.

“Hey, hey, it's okay. You had a nightmare but it's okay now. Everything is fine; it was just a dream, Keith. You're okay, everything's okay. It wasn’t real.” After a long moment Keith's face mostly cleared and he dropped Lance’s wrists like they were hot coals burning his palms. Lance let go of Keith's shoulders and leaned back out of his space to give him some air.

“You okay, buddy?” 

“Yeah, I just,” Keith scrubbed his hands over his face and pushed his hair back off his damp forehead,”God, I'm sorry. I didn't wake you up, did I?” 

“No no, it's fine,” Lance lied smoothly, “you're sure you're fine? Do you wanna talk about it?”

“No. It was just,” Keith took in a gulp of air as he pushed himself up into a sitting position. His voice shook and Lance felt suddenly like he was intruding into Keith's moment of vulnerability. His face was so open and easy to read, and Keith was _never_ so expressive.There was another pang in Lance's heart. Keith shuddered as he remembered the nightmare and finished his thought, “a bad dream. That's all.”

Lance nodded, falling back into the easy pattern he used when his little sisters had nightmares, “Do you want me to stay?” 

Immediately, his mouth snapped shut and he felt his face flush. He was instantly thankful for the cover of the darkness that hid his embarrassment, but tucked his head down just in case. Really, he hadn't meant to say it; it was just muscle memory. It took Lance less than half a second to realize that he truly meant it, though. He wanted to be there for Keith, if Keith needed him. With that thought filed away to consider later, Lance tensed and prepared for Keith to reject him; for Keith to eviscerate him for it because that was what they did. It was their dynamic, their _thing_. 

“Do you mean it?” 

Lance jerked his head up in surprise, eyes wide, to find Keith watching him carefully. “Yeah, of course I did.” 

“Then… yeah. I do,” Keith said softly, glancing down at his still shaking hands. Lance pretended not to notice and let a small smile shape his mouth. 

“Alright then, scoot over,” he directed, making small shoving motions with his hands. His tone had changed to something lighter, something a little less serious. It was familiar and almost teasing, lightening the moment in a carefully calculated way.

“Wait, what?” Keith looked so bewildered, eyes huge and brows furrowed under the mess of bedhead he was sporting. It took a heroic effort on Lance’s part not to laugh, but he managed. 

“It's the first rule to nightmare after-care; snugs, man,” Lance was still making the motions with his hands and Keith stared at them. 

“Huh?” 

“I don't make the rules; I just follow them,” Lance said with a shrug. When Keith still looked wary he added, “trust me, man. I have three little sisters; I know what I'm doing.” 

“Alright,” Keith said after a moment and moved closer to the wall, freeing up half the bed for Lance to lay down. 

Lance slid himself down so he was laying on his back, “Okay Keithy, come in for some quality Lance McClain snugs.” Keith rolled his eyes at the nickname but did as instructed, wriggling closer to rest his head on Lance’s chest. After a moment he tentatively wrapped an arm around the other boy’s chest. Lance felt a burst of warmth, replacing the earlier pangs as their legs tangled and he brought his arm from behind Keith to brush his fingers softly through his hair. 

Keith muttered, “That feels really nice.” Lance hummed in the back of his throat in response. 

“Try to sleep now, Keith. I'll be here if you have another nightmare,” he said softly after a few moments. 

“Okay,” Keith replied in a voice already heavily shaded with sleepiness. There was a pause and then, “Lance? Thank you.” 

__“Of course,” Lance smiled even though he knew Keith couldn't see him, “what are friends for?”__

__He heard the moment Keith fell asleep, his breathing deepening and evening out, but he kept stroking the other boy’s hair, irregardless. Lance didn't really plan on sleeping; it was only an varga or two until they had to be up anyway, and it wasn't worth it. He had promised Keith he would be there if he needed him, and being asleep would only get in the way of that. Despite his resolve, he could feel himself falling closer and closer into the clutches of sleep. The warmth of Keith's body and the soft ebb and flow of his breathing slowly but surely pulled Lance under, and he fell asleep with a smile on his face and his hand still in Keith's hair._ _

____

+1. 

____

Lance woke up before the alarm, his body curled around Keith as he blinked his eyes open. He could just see the clock out of the corner of his eye and saw that there was still twenty minutes before the alarm blared and disturbed the perfect slice of the world Lance found himself in.He found himself wishing it could last forever, and in a moment that was almost unconscious, Lance tipped his face downward and pressed a kiss to Keith’s forehead. 

____

Immediately, Keith shifted, pulling his head back from Lance shoulder to glance up at him. 

____

“Oh, hey, Keith,” Lance said in a cheerful tone, hoping that Keith couldn't feel how fast his heart was suddenly pounding, “how ya doing this fine morning?” 

____

“Did you just… kiss my forehead?” Keith asked, face scrunched up. Lance wasn’t sure what that meant. Keith’s arm was still thrown over Lance’s chest, and he did nothing to rectify it. Lance wasn’t sure what that meant either. 

____

“Uh,” he stumbled over his words, feeling a flush rise on his cheeks, “it was just a friendly bro-kiss. A good morning kiss between dudes. You've never kissed a bro good morning?” 

____

“The only boys I ever kiss good morning are the ones I'm dating,” Keith said. Lance briefly wondered how Keith had managed to date anyone while living in a shack in the desert and then he processed what has been said. And flushed even further. 

____

“Uh, I,” he repeated dumbly. All the confidence he'd had while comforting Keith the night before had fled. He tried again, “do you…” 

____

“Do I?” Keith prompted, and Lance could swear that Keith was watching him squirm with a _smirk_ on his mullet-having face. 

____

“I like you,” Lance blurted, turning his face away and trying to extract his arm from around Keith so he could stand up. His early hopes about the moment lasting forever had quickly changed to _this moment ending immediately and never being mentioned again_. 

____

“Yeah? Thank god, because if you didn't, it would have made what I'm about to do kinda awkward,” Keith said, and Lance thought he detected a slight laugh in his voice. He heard Keith shift around, moving into a half-sitting position and then there was hand on Lance’s jaw, gently turning his face back towards Keith. His eyes widened as Keith leaned in and kissed him.  
It was a sleepy kiss, chaste and sweet. To Lance it seemed like it had hardly begun by the time it was over. Keith pulled back with a smile on his lips and his eyes crinkled up. “Good morning, Lance.” 

“Wow,” Lance said softly, grinning like an idiot. “And here I thought you just wanted to be teammates. Wait, does this mean we’re dating then?’ 

____

Keith rolled his eyes and laughed. “Way to ruin the moment, McClain. Besides; you're the one who said ‘ _friends_.” Lance huffed and reached for Keith, bringing their mouths together in a kiss that was less sleepy, and much less chaste than the first. 

“Good morning, Keith,” he said, a little breathless. 

“Dork,” Keith replied, but his eyes were soft and he was smiling. Quickly the smile turned mischievous. “Actually; I just remembered you called me a meat-shield? So, nevermind. I take this all back.” Lance made an offended noise, and pouted for a moment before Keith leaned back in and suddenly his mouth was preoccupied doing something more important than feigning hurt feelings. 

They traded sleepy, teasing insults and kisses until the alarm went off, and pulled them out of their own dreamy little world.

____

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Yell at me on tumblr at [elongated-pasta](https://elongated-pasta.tumblr.com/)


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